This invention relates to a new method for co-producing fuel and metallized iron from coal and from iron ore respectively. The metallized iron is also known as "directly reduced iron" (DRI).
The production of DRI from iron ore by using reducing gases reformed from natural gas has been commercially practiced for many decades. The main disadvantage in using natural gas is its high cost; another disadvantage is that it is not always available. Further, the natural gas needs to be reformed in a hydrogen producing plant; such a plant adds substantially to the capital cost of the facility that converts the iron ore to DRI. A study prepared for the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce by Fordham University in 1981, the Summary & Conclusions of which are referenced herewith, indicates "the need to assign high priority to basic research into new methods of coal based direct reduction" (page xxvi, para. 3).
The present invention overcomes the above disadvantages and provides an efficient method which while producing fuel in the form of coke and/or gas can also co-produce DRI from iron ore, utilizing abundant coal as a base.